Valentine’s Day Poem—Be Careful Of The Lies He Is Telling You

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, here is a poem to remind you not to believe the lies your lover tells you.  (I’ve got a picture of a parrot  up there because a parrot is mentioned in the poem and the bird is quite colorful.) is a poem written in India almost 2000 years ago. The age of the poem just goes to show you—Things have long been the same way. 

Here’s the poem. It is called What She Said To Her Girl-Friend—

Once you said

let’s go, let’s go

to the gay carnival in the big city;

That day

the good elders spoke of many good omens

for our going.

But he waylaid me,

gave me a slingshot and rattles

for scaring parrots,

and a skirt of young leaves

which he said looked good

on me,

and with his lies

he took the rare innocence

that mother had saved for me.

And now I am like this.

Instead Of Twittering People, How About An Outdoor Rally?

Some local candidates Houston have set up Twitter accounts and are Twittering people. I’m sure this going on in other places around the nation.

(Here is an explanation of Twitter. Maybe it is something you would enjoy.  As for myself, I’ve reached a limit of the forums and platforms I have the time to use to communicate.)

I wonder if candidates can get a full platform into a one sentence update? What’s next? Telepathy? Just how few words can we use, and still refer to what is taking place as campaigning, or reaching out, or providing information?

What are the demographics of Twitter users as compared to Houston as a whole?  Maybe a better match than that of  political bloggers I admit, but it seems just one more way to make the electoral process around here even more remote from the average person. 

Maybe candidates could spend some of the time they are engaged in so-called social networking actually going out and meeting voters and explaining positions to voters. In our district council elections, there are so few regular voters you could actually go door to door with many of them if you got an early enough start before Election Day. Just contact our board of elections and get the list. 

It’s nice and warm most of the time in Houston. Today it was 70 on the first day of February. Maybe a candidate could even have an outdoor rally or event. You could set it up at a park and offer hot dogs and whatever. You could just talk to people.

Or–get this–people in Houston, and elsewhere in the nation, could actually take part in local politics and demand more from people seeking office and those already elected to office. Average folks could make it so that a Twitter message would rarely suffice when politicians are trying to reach voters.